As a response, the troubled company’s new CEO, Börje Ekholm, announced a costs cutting program of 10 billion SEK ($1,25 bn) per year. He did not say how many jobs were at stake.

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Now insider sources have provided details to Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), indicating that Ericsson's restructuring will be more brutal than expected.

The Swedish newspaper reports that up to 25,000 people may be affected by the restructuring program. Ericsson currently employs 109,000 people across 110 offices around the world.

The anonymous sources say Ericsson has advanced plans to shrink operations by 80-90 percent in some markets, and centralize several European markets. However, the 14,000 employee-strong Swedish work force is to stay intact – at least all R&D engineers.

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“Right now, Ericsson is hiring engineers to repair the damage that earlier saving packages caused. It’s crucial that most of all the Swedish R&D department remains somewhat protected. They are the ones who will come up with the new solutions that will drive sales in the long term,” said a person with insight into the process.

“My understanding is that they have reverse calculated how much the company needs to save in order to escape the crisis while not risking a rights issue. It will be brutal [in some parts of the organization],” said another anonymous source.

Although cuts may be limited to certain geographies, SvD says they will affect most parts of the organization, including sourcing, sales, logistics and production. In terms of business areas, the underperforming Managed Services risks seeing the biggest job cuts.